10 classic onstage injuries

From the plain-stupid to the hard-as-nails

Lou Reed, 1973, New York

Audience displeasure works on a sliding scale. Most fans will settle for a refund. Some will opt for booing. A handful will throw bottles of piss.

In March 1973, one punter in Buffalo expressed his displeasure at Reed’s set in surreal fashion, by leaping up onto the stage, shouting “leather!” and biting the former Velvet Underground star on his era-defining arse.

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Keith Moon & Pete Townshend, 1967, USA

Proof that drummers have always been fools came with The Who’s riotous 1967 performance of My Generation on US TV, when Keith Moon’s stunt of detonating his kit with a treble dose of flash powder ignited Uncle Pete’s hair and permanently damaged his hearing. Nice one, Keith.

Matt Bellamy, 2004, Atlanta

If aliens do walk among us, as Matt Bellamy insists, they’d presumably have written off the concept of intelligent life on earth after watching the Muse man head-butt his own headstock during the intro to Citizen Erased.

Keith Richards, 1965, Sacramento

The indestructible Stone doubled as a lightning rod when his Tele brushed against a live mic. The fact he was playing The Last Time seemed a grim irony, but Keef was apparently saved by his rubber soles.

“I woke up in the hospital an hour later,” he recalls. “The doctor said electrocution victims come around or they don’t.”

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Frank Zappa, 1971, London

If a man with a 'tache that good is looking at your girlfriend, it's understandable to feel threatened.

Krist Novoselic, 1992, Los Angeles

Launching his bass skywards at the MTV Awards, Novoselic reminded us that musicians can’t catch: “Maybe I was a little nervous, but it popped me on the head. Kurt didn’t know what happened. He kicked me in the ass as I went offstage!”

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Pete Townshend, 1989, Washington

If you mess-up your signature stage move, you've only yourself to blame.